Review of Chasing Wishes by Nadia Simonenko

Blurb

"I wish I didn't have to go home. I wish I was someone else—someone with a future..."

For sixteen-year-old Nina Torres, it feels as if life is nothing but a dead end. Despised by her rich classmates and afraid that she'll become just like her drug-addicted mother, Nina's future seems to get dimmer every day.

There is one bright spot in her life though...

Sitting beside her one night, the only person in the world who cares about her makes a promise. No matter what happens—no matter how much Isaac's wealthy family disapproves—he and his girlfriend Nina will be together forever.

Fate plays a cruel trick on Nina, though, and a visit from Child Protective Services the next morning turns Nina Torres into Irene Hartley, a woman with a future but who will never see her beloved Isaac again.

Nine years later, a blind and incredibly handsome young entrepreneur hires Irene to be his personal assistant. Terrence Radcliffe reminds her so much of Isaac that she can hardly believe her eyes, and she's falling for him fast. Irene knows that fairy tales don't come true, but she allows herself one last wish. She wishes that she could finally say goodbye to Isaac and let herself take a chance on Terrence.

What she doesn't know is that Terrence is also searching for someone: a shooting star who streaked through his life nine years ago, and he won't give up until he finds her...

Chasing Wishes is a powerful contemporary tale of lost love and wishes come true, recommended for ages 17+ due to adult content.



Author Bio


Nadia Simonenko is a scientist and author currently living in Pennsylvania with her husband, two cats and a dog. When she isn’t writing, she develops new drug compounds and dreams about someday painting her office to look like a forest.




Review


Where do I start? I guess I'll start with this--I loved this book. Not to gush, but Nadia Simonenko is an amazing storyteller. She is truly a talented writer. The story flows so well. Her characters have such real voices. While some of the elements of the story are a bit fantastical, it only adds to the beauty of the story. I would compare it to the movie August Rush...where the likelyhood of it happening in real life is slim, but the story is so beautiful, that you want it to be real, you almost need it to be real. Seriously, read this book!




Buy it at Amazon or Barnes&Noble




Check out Nadia's Website nadiaromance.com

Back to school...

First day down. This quarter aught to be entertaining at least. I'm doing 18 credits and only 1 class is online. My brain hurts already and I haven't even bought my books yet.

Review of Perfect Opposite by Zoya Tessi

Their wishes were simple and modest. Fate had other things in store though, and she can be a real bitch sometimes.

All he wanted was to get the job done and somehow to endure those long months playing nanny to a spoiled little rich girl. Would he make it through without strangling her with his bare hands? It was going to be much easier said than done.

All she wanted was to escape the past and live like any other nineteen-year-old girl. Her plan definitely didn’t include the arrogant, tattooed savage, with his awful mohawk hair and lack of social graces, whose only mission was to stick real close and mess up her life.

What will happen when two entirely different worlds collide?
Lies, betrayals, mistakes and bad choices. Can they be forgiven and forgotten?
Will they be ready to gamble with their hearts twice over?
Where will the scales fall? On the side of fear, or daring?

Author Bio

A teenager in an adult's body. A rebel in the guise of an ordinary citizen. A lady with very unladylike language. A dreamer with a rational mind. A woman born into the wrong era, she still believes that chivalry's a feat to define the perfect man.

Zoya spent years doing volunteering work all across Europe, from cleaning school basements in Northern Russia to excavating Stone Age artifacts in Euskadi (the Basque country) and renovating castles from the middle ages in Southern France. She always dreamed of working with 'Doctors without borders' somewhere out in Africa, but ended up doing an 'ordinary job' in one of the smaller European countries.

Her greatest passion is devouring each and every book that comes within her reach.

My Review

It's a classic story...spoiled little rich girl falls for her body guard. Zoya tells it well. the story flows and the characters are rich and vibrant. The love story is sweet and makes you laugh and cry. The only criticism I have is that the setting is very ambiguous. It is a large city, but where? It could be the US, it could be the UK, it could be Europe. From the references in the book, it is hard to tell.

Overall, I really did like this book. It is an excellent debut for Zoya Tessi!

Buy it at Amazon

Follow her blog zoyatessi.wordpress.com

Review of Driftwood Deeds by Laila Blake

When journalist Iris Ellis visits a sleepy seaside town to interview recluse screenwriter Paul Archer, he offers her insights into never acted upon fantasies of dominance and submission. Too curious to deny herself a taste of them, Iris gives herself up to Paul's gentle guidance, but when she realizes that a taste can never be enough, she must find the courage to ask for what she needs or risk losing it all.

Author Bio

Laila Blake is an author, linguist and translator. She writes character-driven love stories, co-hosts the podcast Lilt and blogs about writing, feminism and society.  She lives in Cologne/Germany with her cat Nookie, adores obscure folk singers and plays the guitar.

My Review

While this novella was a little more graphic than what I am usually interested in, the writing was exquisite. At one point in the book, Paul describes Iris's state of mind as sub-space, "where talk seems unnecessary, thought too." This simple statement also describes the mood of this story. It brings you into the same place as the characters.

It is a short read, I finished in one sitting, but it is a story that stays with you. Laila Blake has created two memorable characters and given a glimpse inside their world that is not only erotic, but thought provoking as well. She describes the relationship between a dom and sub in a way that someone like me, who is not part of that world, can understand on a deeper level. This story is not really even about sex, it is about surrender of control and the freedom that can bring.

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes&Noble

Visit her website lailablake.com

Review of Camouflaged and Concealed by Selena Laurence

Two years ago, Gabe Thompson stood in the desert of Afghanistan and watched the love of his life drive away. When his tour of duty ended six months later, she wasn’t waiting. Now Gabe’s ready to go after the one thing his life is missing – the woman he’s never been able to forget.

Twenty-year-old Alexis Garcia rues the day she decided to volunteer for a UN mission to Afghanistan. The sexy, exasperating soldier she met there nearly destroyed her carefully constructed life with the boy next door. She’s spent two years trying to forget Gabe, working to show her parents and her boyfriend that she knows where she belongs.

But when Gabe shows up at Alexis’s door, complete with tattoos, a Harley and enough attitude to start another war, everything she’s tried to conceal could be exposed, starting with her heart.

My review

I enjoyed this book. The characters introduced in Camouflaged are more developed in this book. I still couldn't seem to like Alexis though. Even though her POV is explained a little better, she still comes off as spoiled and selfish. Gabe was a great character though, but I have to say, i would have actually liked the book better if he would have gotten together with his other somewhat love-interest.

Overall, well written and entertaining.

Gabe Thompson enlisted to help out his buddy, but three years later he's 100% US military bad boy, serving in the desert of Afghanistan where the days are hot, but the nights are hotter.

Alexis Garcia is out to save the world. The University of Texas freshman has come to Afghanistan to do aid work with the United Nations. She's all about the peace, and she has no use for the camp's biggest, baddest, gun toting player.

But, sometimes camouflage is more than a color, and people aren't what they seem. When conflict develops not only between Gabe and Alexis, but also all around them, they're forced to look deeper, and what they find will rock their worlds and change their hearts forever

My Review

The story was fast paced and well written. She did a great job of telling the guy's POV. A lot of authors get that so very wrong, but Selena Laurence does a great job. The only real criticism I have is that I really didn't like Alexis. She is whiny and entitled and Gabe does everything for her, even though she treats him terribly. Overall though, good book.

Author bio

Selena Laurence lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and spends a hell of a lot of time at soccer games, on her laptop, and reading. She requires a Mocha Latte every day to function, keeps a goldendoodle at her feet most of the time, and has more kids than she knows what to do with. Her husband, Mr. Laurence, spends as much time as he can at the office and the gym in order to avoid the kids, the dog, the laptop and the reading, but he always shows up for the soccer games, and he makes a mean Mocha Latte.

Buy now at Amazon Barnes&Noble

Visit her website selenalaurence.com

Why Mushroom Risotto is the perfect food...

Because my husband will only make it for me once in a blue moon and refuses to teach me how to do it myself, probably because I then proceed to eat WAY to much and have heartburn for a week. But truly, it is a beautiful thing!

Review of Crossroads by Paige Matthews

Everyone finds themselves at a crossroad in their life.

Caleb Cross is not your typical front man. He is not the bad boy, parting, love em and leave em persona, although his public image states otherwise. Being the lead singer of the popular rock band, Double Cross, there are a lot of things fans and the public do not know about Caleb. Sure, Caleb likes to have a little fun now and again, but after a bad publicity stunt, he is determined to shed the ultra bad image.

Katherine “Kat” Summers is not a typical woman. Not a girl who gets star struck or easily impressed, Kat is content on being herself, who she is. Kat enjoys living in the moment, in both her personal and professional life. Her greatest moment-bedding rock star Caleb Cross, a secret she holds onto to this day.

When Kat’s company is hired by Caleb Cross to rebrand him, she finds herself testing everything she has known about herself and about her life. Trying to maintain who she is against what she begins to desire, proves to be difficult for Kat, especially when she sees Caleb as he truly is.

For Caleb, hiring a new publicist to help reshape his image was the easy part, but what he doesn’t count on is being reunited with the one girl that never wanted him more than a night. Caleb is forced to confront himself and Kat in order to learn what he truly wants and who is truly is.

Author Bio

What do you say about yourself? Aren’t we supposed to write these in third person? Oh well, here I go! I have been writing and reading since I was able to pick up a pen and read a book. I can’t even begin to list the amounts of book that I’ve devoured over the course of my life; from the Babysitter’s Club to R.L.Stein to the classics and the novels of my degrees. I have spent countless hours between the covers of classics during my undergraduate and graduate degrees from Western Connecticut State University, resulting in a BA English: Comparative Literature and a MA English: Professional Writing.

Recently, I have been focusing both my writings and my readings in erotica, BDSM and contemporary romance. And no, Fifty Shades of Grey did not get me on the BDSM bandwagon. If anything it opened the idea up more to me, but alas I have my own opinions on the trilogy.

I am trying to focus my writings on the emotional aspects of the erotic world, the emotional bondage of BDSM. I am interested in what makes people want to be dominant or submissive, the connection, etc. But I do like to read about a good flogging and bondage story too, the smuttier the better.

My Review

*Personal note...This book is WAY better than 50 shades!

Kat is a publicist, Caleb is a smoking hot rock star. Three years after a one night stand that rocked both of their worlds, Caleb hires Kat to be his assistant. There are secrets and lies, and a few more bumps in the road, but they both know deep down that they want each other.

The characters are well developed and real, the love scenes are passionate and vivid. The story is well crafted. Paige Matthews has written an intriguing story that leaves you breathless and wanting more.

Buy it Here: Amazon, Barnes&Noble

Follows Paige's blog at paigematthews.com